1. Field of the Invention
The disclosure generally relates to computer-implemented enterprise solution applications.
2. Description of the Related Art
Controlling data and access to that data is one of the core components of any enterprise solution application. This is typically broken down into controlling the following for any end user: 1) what types of data can the end user see (e.g., tables); 2) how much of the data does the end user see (e.g., records); 3) what parts of the data does the end user see (e.g., columns); 4) in what context does the end user see the data (e.g., joins); and 5) what actions can the end user perform against the data (e.g., add, update or modify, and delete, etc).
Standard practices and approaches to control access rights exist in the computing arts. Unfortunately, these practices tend to focus on creating a relatively rigid structure for only solving the issue of access rights. What is often unappreciated is how closely access rights are tied to the process and usability of the application.
Many vendors of enterprise solution applications are finding that rigid access rights structures are hard to implement in dynamic organizations where business requirements and processes differ from business to business, or differ from time-to-time for any given business. What often happens is that the end users or customers of the enterprise solution vendors need to use parts of the structure for other business purposes, but often are disappointed to find that they cannot. Furthermore, as the enterprise solution applications are extended to support more functionality (e.g., internal vs. externally focused), the assumptions made in the design often break down. Enterprise solution vendors are finding that the access rights structure is often so fundamental to the application that the applications cannot easily be re-written to support a new paradigm. Underling this problem is the fact that the implementation of access rights has always been deemed a technology problem. What has often been ignored is the overlap and interaction between access rights with the business process. A new approach to providing enterprise solutions is desirable in order to provide end user flexibility, and to address these problems.